Acquired in 1990 from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Pasadena Office.

Status

Uncatalogued. Generally in good condition.

Access

Collection is open to qualified researches by prior application through the Reader
Services Department. For more information please go to following
URL.

Publication Rights

In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials,
researchers must obtain formal permission from the office of the Library Director. In
most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical property
rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary
rights In some instances, the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the
physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate curator for further
information.

The Ely Collection consists of the papers (68 cartons and transfer cases) of United
States Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Justice Walter R. Ely, past President of
the Los Angeles County Bar Association and prominent Los Angeles attorney. Roughly
one-third of the collection consists of over 2000 U.S. Circuit Court case files for the
period 1971-1984, including private internal memoranda between Ely and such prominent
fellow justices as Arthur Kennedy (now on the Supreme Court) and Shirley Hufstedler.
Included are many cases with both local significance and larger regional or national
impact, with a random check finding topics such as offshore drilling, censorship ("The
Beard"), race relations and education (Los Angeles NAACP vs. California Department of
Education), immigration (numerous INS cases), labor relations (Teamsters; NLRB cases),
feminism (NOW), and financial fraud (Equity Funding; Bernard Cornfeld), with private
comments by the justices not only on the cases but also on Supreme Court behavior,
personnel, etc. In addition, there is material on the Committee on Standards of Judicial
Administration, the Criminal Justice Act of 1964, and the Bankruptcy Appeals Panel in the
early 1980s. Before being appointed to the bench, Walter Ely was a prominent and
politically active lawyer in Los Angeles. There is extensive documentation of his
involvement with the Los Angeles County Bar Association, of which he was president in
1962, the California Conference of State Bar Delegates, and the House of Delegates of the
American Bar Association, not to mention his own personal practice. He was also an active
Democrat, and there is material on California politics for 1956-1964, especially the
election campaigns of Governor Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, Attorney General Stanley Mosk,
Richard Richards, and others in 1962.

Also included are the professional and personal papers of W.R. Ely Sr., a prominent
lawyer in Abilene, Texas, and a member of the Texas State Highway Commission in the early
1930s. The bulk of the extensive documentation is from the 1940s to the 1970s, and deals
with his diverse legal practice, oil and gas leases, and his own personal finances. There
is some correspondence dealing with political affairs in Texas.

"Letter written by General Moseley Baker to General Sam Houston (Evergreen, October 1844 or 1845)"; "Houston Displayed: or, Who Won the Battle of San Jacinto . . . by . . . Col. R.M. Coleman" [typescripts]